China could be the determining factor when it comes to commodities

It seems the rather painful sell-off in some commodities may be over for now, but a blast of major Chinese economic reports that are coming early next week could put any recent rallies to the test come next week.

Many Wall Street strategists have said they see signs of a broader bottoming process but there is no consensus that the commodities crash is actually over, particularly over now.

The bundle of Chinese data coming Monday which will include GDP, retail sales and the industrial output, could steer the course for these markets next week. Some analysts believe China’s economy must show improvement for the best outcome, or at least stop declining if base metals and other commodities are going to see a real rebound.

The overall concern is that any unexpected weakness in the data could mean a hard landing is ahead in this area. China’s third-quarter growth is expected to slow to around 6.8 percent according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

But there is still a great deal of skepticism on a whole that the number is some what inflated however the government has disputed that.